The first award recipient in the Advancing Inclusion + Global Perspectives category is La-Tarri Canty, Director of Multicultural Programs in the Student Activities Office.

La-Tarri is known for building strong relationships across MIT and leveraging those connections to bring us closer together. She also supports MIT students in having difficult but critical conversations about race and diversity. As just one example, she worked with students to establish the organization Programming for Advocacy and Cross-Cultural Exchange—or “PEACE”—which has quickly become a valued resource on our campus.

I am personally grateful for La-Tarri’s leadership this year in working with the students of the Black Students’ Union and the Black Graduate Students Association. In December, she and several other staff joined the students in presenting to Academic Council a series of recommendations to make MIT more inclusive. That conversation sparked important work that will make our community stronger, and our campus more welcoming for all.

Her nominator writes, “La-Tarri is hands-down one of the best leaders in this work I have yet to meet in my 16 years in higher education.”

I am delighted to present the award for Advancing Inclusion and Global Perspectives to La-Tarri Canty- congratulations!